The DeMolay Foundation Board of Trustees authorized an expenditure of up to $100,000 to eight DeMolay Leadership Camps. The grants have been in the works for about six months. Thanks to a generous end-of-year solicitation campaign, as well as several donors to the Second Century Fund, the grants have been made possible. Foundation president, Paul Bohannon, explained, “We had our best end-of-year soliciation in years, particularly since we were able to shave costs by about 50%. I can’t emphasize the importance of your individual donations.”
Foundation Coordinator, Braden Zimmerman, a PIMC, explained the grant process. “We formed a PIMC Task Force and evaluated the criteria of what best typifies a DeMolay Leadership Camp – we like to call them ‘Leadership Academies.’ The next step was to identify those that qualified, which ended up being eight.” The eight camps include the Oklahoma’s DLX, Pennsylvania’s KeyMan, Ohio’s DeMolay Leaders of Excellence, Missouri’s University of DeMolay, . Each camp, under the grant, will receive $12,500 in 2020.
Bohannon explained the grants’ purposes: “The grants are not intended to underwrite normal operating losses nor normal operating expenses. Rather, we intend the grants to extend either the camp programs or participation. We are encouraging the camps to identify new speakers or programs that will further their purposes. Alternatively, the camps can implement a scholarship program for DeMolays that need the assistance. If a camp chooses this option, it will need to implement a policy on how need is identified.The Foundation is involved only to the extent of verifying that the camp administration has implemented a process of identifying need. We do not do the need determination, nor do we evaluate the merits of the state’s determination process. That is each camp’s business.”
Bohannon indicated that the virus is imposing a signficant challenge to the camps this year. The Foundation will be visiting with them about the issues.